NOW is Bobby Babich's seat hot?

[Mikey152]

It's not the coach...

 

It's the young secondary, specifically the safeties.  Less coverage disguise + soft defense = more break, especially on third down. 

 

That said, they can and will get better over time. The goal is to win for now and to peak at the end of the season.

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

1 hour ago, LABILLBACKER said:

Trust me....it's not just the Chiefs in the playoffs....we gave up points and a ton of yards against Indy(2020), Cincy(2022) and Baltimore(2024).

Can’t really fault the defense against Baltimore in the playoffs tbh…I think they rescued the offense both times.  The other ones are fair though 

[Mr. WEO]

1 hour ago, Mister Defense said:

 

 

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

 

What do you mean??

 

Am I missing something with this kind of post, and similar posts, that make almost 0 sense?

 

Maybe I had unknowingly  fallen asleep for a looooooong time?

 

Can someone help me out here, provide some answers?

 

It seems to imply that Sean McDermott has jettisoned, fired, a slew of defensive coordinators in his NINE YEARS as the Bills' head coach.

 

But isn't Babbich only his second defensive coordinator in those NINE years, after Frasier??

 

And isn't that on the very low side for coaches with similar nine year tenures?

 

 

We are mostly adults on here, I assume, so isn't at least a tiny bit of logic, and some base in reality, something that should be guiding all of us?

 

 

 

stay tuned

[TheBrownBear]

19 hours ago, Mister Defense said:

 

Not sure if that is sarcasm/snarkism, have not heard that phrase before!  Let me know!

 

It's both a compliment and an insult. It speaks to one's ability to get people to engage with their content - usually in the form of a controversial or outrageous take. I applied it to your thread here mostly because of the all-capped "NOW" implying that holding a team to 19 points and less than 300 yards was some sort of five alarm fire situation.

 

I think you're wrong on the "hot seat" notion, but I do share concerns with you about the defense holding up against better teams and I would have preferred to see them dominate against the Fins and Saints at home the way they did in New Jersey.  I think it's mostly execution on the part of a young secondary and missing some key players in the middle, but could McDermott calling plays lead to a better performance? Maybe. Or maybe even probably given McD's track record. 

 

We are only four games into the season and the D hasn't cost us a game yet, so I'll exercise patience for now.  We have a few decent tests sprinkled in over the next six weeks (Pats, Chiefs, Bucs) and should have a better idea of where we stand then.

[Mister Defense]

48 minutes ago, TheBrownBear said:

It's both a compliment and an insult. It speaks to one's ability to get people to engage with their content - usually in the form of a controversial or outrageous take. I applied it to your thread here mostly because of the all-capped "NOW" implying that holding a team to 19 points and less than 300 yards was some sort of five alarm fire situation.

 

I think you're wrong on the "hot seat" notion, but I do share concerns with you about the defense holding up against better teams and I would have preferred to see them dominate against the Fins and Saints at home the way they did in New Jersey.  I think it's mostly execution on the part of a young secondary and missing some key players in the middle, but could McDermott calling plays lead to a better performance? Maybe. Or maybe even probably given McD's track record. 

 

We are only four games into the season and the D hasn't cost us a game yet, so I'll exercise patience for now.  We have a few decent tests sprinkled in over the next six weeks (Pats, Chiefs, Bucs) and should have a better idea of where we stand then.

 

Okay, thanks?!

 

But the NOW  in my topic title was just a reference to a similar thread I had  started just as the Jets game was beginning a few weeks ago.  So after three more games, I wanted to see what posters were thinking--NOW, three weeks, 3 games later.

 

And I definitely do not think it is an "outrageous take"! I in no way intended it be.  Not  at all, actually. Because if this is the defense going forward, this is likely not the season all involved were hoping for.  In fact, I think there is almost no way it can be.

 

So to me the 'outrageous' thing would be to let this fester, and not make the change, with so many signs pointing to the clear problem,. IF that problem persists..  It is the same way I thought when it was quickly so obvious at the start of the season that dorsey was indeed the culprit. And so many said to me then, you don't fire a coach in the middle of the season and hope to be a contender, won't happen, McDermott won't do it...

 

He did it and the offense was born anew---immediately.

 

Obviously  I don't see it the same way as you such as the young secondary being one of the major problems and the missing players:

 

--Except for 2nd year player Bishop, it is actually an experienced secondary, and across the board.  Rapp, Benford, Johnson, White are the other starters.  All very experienced.  But, yes, Strong has also gotten some good playing time.

 

--And a few missing players should not rock a defensive unit in this manner, would not, I would say.  And especially true for a team that is noted for good depth. More importantly though, I don't accept your premise because this defense looks startlingly similar to last year's in run defense, 3rd down efficiency, 2nd half adjustments, tackling...   Hard to believe that the same exact ugly things we saw last year are rearing their same exact ugly heads again this year, and to the same extent, because of missing a few players.

 

But we will see.

 

And actually, I am hoping you are right, and I am wrong about my hypothesis.  As that means a smoother season--and I am worried, as I was with dorsey, that McBean may not pull the trigger if they need to.

 

But in no way should McBeane wait 6 weeeks, until almost Thanksgiving, to make a change if all of the evidence keeps revealing the same thing.

 

 

Edited Thursday at 07:05 PM by Mister Defense

[Low Positive]

Do you know that the Bills were one of only 6 teams to hold their opponent to under 20 points last week?

[Mister Defense]

8 minutes ago, Low Positive said:

Do you know that the Bills were one of only 6 teams to hold their opponent to under 20 points last week?

 

Wow, now, clearly, I realize that this defense kicked some serious kiester last week. 

 

I am sure we are all now hoping for a similar defensive performance against the improved, better than the Saints, Patriots on Sunday night?

 

I was completely confident during the Saints game that the Bills were going to win, never a doubt.

 

More of the same this week hopefully, right?

 

 

[Billy Claude]

4 hours ago, BillsFan130 said:

He's 10x better than Babich, but at the end of the day his passive defensive scheme got shredded in the playoffs year after year 

 

I don't think Frazier got much credit from the fans even for the regular season defense.   It was typically assumed that it was mostly McDermott.

[Low Positive]

1 minute ago, Mister Defense said:

 

Wow, now, clearly, I realize that this defense kicked some serious kiester last week. 

 

I am sure we are all now hoping for a similar defensive performance against the improved, better than the Saints, Patriots on Sunday night?

 

I was completely confident during the Saints game that the Bills were going to win, never a doubt.

 

More of the same this week hopefully, right?

 

 

I'm not arguing that the Bills defense looked good. They didn't. But they did about the same against the Saints as the 49ers defense did in week 2, and most consider them to be a good, well-coached unit. In other words, the Saints were the Saints against the Bills.

 

 

I think only the Chiefs and maybe the Lions have been playing stellar defense this year. The Packers defense, which was considered elite just a week and a half ago, gave up 40 to the Cowboys, who were playing without CeeDee Lamb.  If the Bills defense gives up major yards and/or points to the Pats offense on Sunday, I'll be right there with you in front of OBD with a flaming pitchfork.  But if we lose, I expect us to be calling for the Special Teams Coordinator's head. The Pats have two wins this year. Neither of them happens without an absurd amount of kick and punt return yards.  Well, they would have beaten the Panthers anyway, but it wouldn't have been the laugher that it was without 14 first-half points off of punt returns. 

[BillsFan130]

34 minutes ago, Billy Claude said:

 

I don't think Frazier got much credit from the fans even for the regular season defense.   It was typically assumed that it was mostly McDermott.

Ya that's fair and I don't disagree with that part 

[WideNine]

On 9/30/2025 at 9:09 AM, Augie said:

We have a LOT of younger guys playing, and we are missing some of our best players on defense. 

 

Like judging a draft too soon, I’d like to see how this defense finishes the year before getting too excited. 

I do think he has a lot to prove still since taking on the DC role and winning it over the team keeping and promoting Washington. 

It is not like Washington has lit it up in Chicago and I am not sure he did enough to develop our defensive line when he was here. Babich's claim to fame was the development and play of our linebackers which lately has not really shown up on the field with the struggle hitting run fits and tackling. An argument could be made that Shaq Thompson is our best linebacker, but he is an 11 year vet who learned how to play the position elsewhere.

 

[Low Positive]

3 minutes ago, BillsFan130 said:

Ya that's fair and I don't disagree with that part 

But it made no sense. The only similarity between McDermott's defenses in Carolina and Frazier's defense is that they were both 4-3. McDermott had an attacking 4-3 in Carolina. He comes from the Jim Johnson/Eagles coaching tree, along with Spags. Frazier is a Tampa/Cover 2 zone guy who comes out of the Tony Dungy coaching tree. The "soft zone" that everyone here hates actually went out the door with Frazier. But that narrative was formed, and people think every defensive failure is due to it.

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

1 hour ago, Mister Defense said:

 

Wow, now, clearly, I realize that this defense kicked some serious kiester last week. 

 

I am sure we are all now hoping for a similar defensive performance against the improved, better than the Saints, Patriots on Sunday night?

 

I was completely confident during the Saints game that the Bills were going to win, never a doubt.

 

More of the same this week hopefully, right?

 

 

Pats offense is overvalued and the saints offense is undervalued based on a huge schedule disparity imo…no one has really cared enough about the saints to notice though 😂

Saints schedule:

ARI

SF

SEA

BUF

that’s a bit of a meatgrinder lol three teams in the top 10 in points allowed and one hovering around average.  pats have seen no one in the top 18 all year.  Yardage allowed wouldn’t even change much…Buffalo would improve and Arizona would fall.

 

I’m not really seeing this huge chasm between the pats and saints offense tbh.  I think adjusting for opponents saints have the worse qb obviously  but they’ve got a significantly better running game..  really wouldn’t be surprised if this was an easier game than last week 

Edited Thursday at 08:35 PM by Generic_Bills_Fan

[TheBrownBear]

2 hours ago, Mister Defense said:

--And a few missing players should not rock a defensive unit in this manner, would not, I would say.  And especially true for a team that is noted for good depth. More importantly though, I don't accept your premise because this defense looks startlingly similar to last year's in run defense, 3rd down efficiency, 2nd half adjustments, tackling...   Hard to believe that the same exact ugly things we saw last year are rearing their same exact ugly heads again this year, and to the same extent, because of missing a few players.

 

Beane went out and attempted to significantly rework the defensive roster.  We are missing three of those pieces right now in Hoecht, Ogunjobi and Hairston, and two of our best defensive players are injured on top of that (Milano and Oliver). Yeah, I know these things happen and you have to be able to roll with the punches, but that's a significant amount of talent missing at the moment.  Despite that, we've been pretty good outside of the Ravens game save the third down defense against the Fins and some shoddy tackling in the first half against the Saints. We currently rank #11 in ypg (290).  We can be better, but your OP is completely hitting the panic button by calling the past couple of weeks "awful" performances when they've statistically been better than average outside of a couple of areas.

 

I concede you may be right and we aren't reaching our potential due to Babich, but unless McDermott is seeing something glaring on the inside, I don't think the present performance (given the currently available players) warrants placing him on the "hot seat". If the defense gets shredded by the Pats on Sunday, then maybe we can start to heat up that seat.

Edited Thursday at 09:07 PM by TheBrownBear

[Allen2Moulds]

3 hours ago, Mikey152 said:

It's not the coach...

 

It's the young secondary, specifically the safeties.  Less coverage disguise + soft defense = more break, especially on third down. 

 

That said, they can and will get better over time. The goal is to win for now and to peak at the end of the season.

I hope this is it, because right now they all seem always be a half step behind. I've never been part of the fire McDermott crowd, but we do need to get the defense right, if not, we'll continue to fall short. 

[GunnerBill]

1 hour ago, Billy Claude said:

 

I don't think Frazier got much credit from the fans even for the regular season defense.   It was typically assumed that it was mostly McDermott.

 

Frazier was waaaayyyy underrated by Bills fans. I said it then and I say it now. He is a darn good football coach.

[SoTier]

On 10/1/2025 at 11:29 AM, JP51 said:

Yes to all of this...  someone needs to reimagine this defense looking at the players we have...  I do not want McDs philosophy any more... attacking defense.. punishing... you get beat... so what you got Josh... our slow retreat defense that relies on turnovers and hopes to hold teams to FGs... fine in the regular season... has not got it done in the playoffs...  if we run this back to the playoffs in the same lane I would suggest we probably get the same result we have gotten for 5 or 6 years. 

 

McDermott isn't leaving any time soon unless the Bills start losing lots of games and miss the playoffs in multiple years or if McDermott decides to leave for personal or health reasons.   There is nothing you can do to change anything, so you can make your peace with that reality and enjoy this most wonderful time to be a Bills fan or you can continue to be angry and miserable while the good times pass you by.

 

On 10/1/2025 at 1:06 PM, Success said:

Remember when we had Schwarz?

 

THAT was a defense.

 

 

 

I remember just fine ... and I prefer today's Bills team even with their supposedly terrible defense,  thank you very much.  Winning is always better than not.

 

On 10/1/2025 at 2:20 PM, GoBills808 said:

you can't be a top defense and fall apart in the postseason

 

You can be a top defense and never even make the playoffs.  See the 2014 Buffalo Bills and the 2024 Cleveland Browns.

 

 

 

 

 

[GoBills808]

44 minutes ago, SoTier said:

 

 

You can be a top defense and never even make the playoffs. 

correct, unfortunately that's not what i said

[JP51]

1 hour ago, SoTier said:

 

McDermott isn't leaving any time soon unless the Bills start losing lots of games and miss the playoffs in multiple years or if McDermott decides to leave for personal or health reasons.   There is nothing you can do to change anything, so you can make your peace with that reality and enjoy this most wonderful time to be a Bills fan or you can continue to be angry and miserable while the good times pass you by.

 

 

I remember just fine ... and I prefer today's Bills team even with their supposedly terrible defense,  thank you very much.  Winning is always better than not.

 

 

You can be a top defense and never even make the playoffs.  See the 2014 Buffalo Bills and the 2024 Cleveland Browns.

 

 

 

 

 

Not angry or miserable and quite honestly feel fortunate to be in a place again I never thought I would see after the Kelly era.. but I do appreciate the concern... truly

[RyanC883]

If we blow a playoff game because of the D, scape goat will be Babich and not MCnoD.